Doug Pryce: Obamacare benefits far outweigh problems – Boulder Daily Camera.
I responded to Mr. Pryce in the comments as “rideinthedark”. Here is my response…
“Imagine that you’re struck with a chronic illness, one that you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life. Under our old system, the insurance company would pick up its share of the tab for the first year, but would be free to drop you thereafter.”
Really? Doug Pryce, you are either willfully ignorant or a liar.
I have had same “junk” insurance policy since 2009. My daughter, who was 14 at the time, did develop a chronic condition and she will be taking at least some medication for the rest of her life. In fact, she is having an outpatient procedure today at Children’s Hospital that I estimate will cost at least $4000. My insurance company has paid over $200,000 to Children’s (encompassing 7 in-patient stays) not to mention a number of $14,000 drug infusions. I feel fairly confident they have paid out over $300,000 in total since Jan 2011. After all of that, they covered my biceps tendon surgery too. Imagine that!
One simple question… WHY HAVEN’T THEY CANCELLED OUR COVERAGE?
The cheapest plan on Connect for Health Colorado exchange costs $300/mo more then my present plan. Sure glad it’s Grandfathered.
For reasons that aren’t clear to me, other people can post much longer comment posts then I am able to do. Let me elaborate on my comments since I have as much space as I need.
My daughter was diagnosed with what can truly be called a chonic illness. However, through surgery, we were able to remove the main culprit. However, the effects of her surgery will be with her the rest of her life and she has continued to have some level of complications. In fact, while I was typing the comment, my wife called me from Children’s and said that if today’s procedure wasn’t entirely successful, the next step would be minor outpatient surgery.
She did have infusions at Children’s that cost in the range of $12,000 to $14,000. The majority of expense was the infusion process and it’s not clear to me that we couldn’t have reduced that cost over time to a much smaller 4 digit number if we had the infusions done elsewhere. However, once she had her major surgery, there was no need for the infusions.
Insurance cost: The cost for our family is around $1300 per month. That is a $5000 family deductible and 80/20 until a maximum out of pocket of $9700 is reached. Yes, I DO wish I had purchased a lower deductible back in 2009!
The lowest cost exchange plan for our family is around $1600 with a $5500 (or so) per person deductible or $11,000 family with a maximum out of pocket of $6350 per person or $12,700 per family.
We did consider getting my daughter on her own Obamacare plan with a very low deductible, and it might have been the right decision. However, since our plan has a family deductible, we all benefit once the $5000 family deductible is met. That would NOT be the case if she got her own plan. It would also not be the case if we all purchasd an Obamacare plan. She would benefit from meeting the $5500 deductible, but the rest of us would have to meet the other $5500 deductible to receive notable benefits.
Oh, and why haven’t they cancelled our coverage? Because they can’t. It’s against the law as long as we pay our premiums. Only if they left the state could they cancel our coverage.
